Pop star Shakira is acquitted in a Spanish tax fraud case
FILE – Shakira performs during the Global Citizen Festival in New York on Sept. 27, 2025.
Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File
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Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File
MADRID — A Spanish court acquitted Shakira in a tax fraud case, ordering the government to return more than 55 million euros ($64 million) in wrongly imposed fines and interest, a court document seen Monday by The Associated Press said.
The decision follows years of tax troubles in Spain for the Colombian superstar.
The ruling relates to a dispute over the 2011 tax year in which Spanish tax authorities did not prove that the singer was a resident of Spain, the Madrid-based court said in its decision.
For a person to be considered a tax resident in Spain, she must spend more than 183 days in the country. Spanish authorities were only able to prove that Shakira lived in Spain that year for a total of 163 days, the court said.
Spain’s tax authorities have over the past decade or so cracked down on soccer stars like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for not paying their full due in taxes. Those players were found guilty of tax evasion but avoided prison time thanks to a provision that allows a judge to waive sentences under two years in length for first-time offenders.
In other words for a person to be considered a tax resident in Spain, she must spend more than 183 days in the country. Curious to see how this develops.
Charles Sykes is in a tough spot here, curious how they navigate it.
For a person to be considered a tax resident in Spain, she must spend more than 183 days in the country. Meanwhile spain’s tax authorities have over the past decade or so cracked down on soccer stars like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for not paying their full due in taxes.
The ruling relates to a dispute over the 2011 tax year in which Spanish tax authorities did not prove that the singer was a resident of Spain, the Madrid-based court said in its decision. Meanwhile for a person to be considered a tax resident in Spain, she must spend more than 183 days in the country.
If fILE – Shakira performs during the Global Citizen Festival in New York on Sept, then the bigger picture starts to look very different.
Considering fILE – Shakira performs during the Global Citizen Festival in New York on Sept, it raises some real questions about what happens next.
So the bottom line is spain’s tax authorities have over the past decade or so cracked down on soccer stars like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for not paying their full due in taxes. Wonder how this will land.
Think about it: for a person to be considered a tax resident in Spain, she must spend more than 183 days in the country. That speaks volumes.
183 days — and that is probably just the official count.
In other words the ruling relates to a dispute over the 2011 tax year in which Spanish tax authorities did not prove that the singer was a resident of Spain, the Madrid-based court said in its decision. Curious to see how this develops.
Reading that spain’s tax authorities have over the past decade or so cracked down on soccer stars like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for not paying their full due in taxes — hard to argue with the logic there.
FILE – Shakira performs during the Global Citizen Festival in New York on Sept. Meanwhile the decision follows years of tax troubles in Spain for the Colombian superstar.
The bigger issue here is for a person to be considered a tax resident in Spain, she must spend more than 183 days in the country. That changes the calculation.
Charles Sykes has been pushing this agenda for a while now.
When you look at the ruling relates to a dispute over the 2011 tax year in which Spanish tax authorities did not prove that the singer was a resident of Spain, the Madrid-based court said in its decision, the implications are hard to ignore.